Villa Nocetta, Rome

Bazaar's favourite family palaces

Villa Nocetta joins the ranks of Bazaar's favourite family palaces – as seen in the Escape section of our April issue

They used to grow artichokes here, on the fringes of the Villa Doria Pamphili park, with its statues, fountains and box hedges. That was until the 1960s, when locals put these hills just south of the Vatican to more lucrative use by building splendid villas for Rome’s haute bourgeoisie. Now one of these villas, tucked behind high walls, provides a hideaway for families looking to enjoy the Eternal City in luxury. Rome in summer is a place of dust and intense heat, of large crowds and phalanxes of scooters, melted ice-creams and tired feet. Villa Nocetta provides a total escape, 20 minutes’ drive from the chaos. The dark-red-painted villa has a spacious garden with a pool, cypresses and orange-trees. There’s a large, stylish sitting-room with marble floors and a grand piano near which we lounged, consuming round after round of superb antipasti. There are six bedrooms, a concierge to arrange unheard-of treats for you, a games-room and a cook and driver who come with the house – though many guests bring their own entourage, including a nanny to sleep in each child’s bedroom. We managed without and set about exploring the alleyways of Trastevere, safe in the knowledge that when it all got a bit much, we had our own private estate to retreat to.Villa Nocetta (+39 06 663 7119), from about £2,400 a night (minimum three nights; sleeps 12).

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